Fall Release 2009
General Operational and Rate Changes
I. Cross Border Fees — Applies to transactions in which the country of the merchant differs from the country associated with the cardholder. In response to an increase recently announced by MasterCard regarding Cross Border Fees and our own pricing considerations, your MasterCard Cross Border fee (or MasterCard Foreign Handling fee) and Visa International Service Assessment fee (or Visa Foreign Handling fee) will be increased, effective October 1, 2009.
MasterCard® Worldwide Operational and Rate Changes
I. MasterCard Excessive Documentation Fee — Effective October 1, 2009, MasterCard has announced an excessive fulfillment fee on a retrieval fulfillment response consisting of five (5) or more pages. This fee applies to pages five (5) or more of the response. Please adhere to response procedures outlined in retrieval notifications and provide only the necessary supporting documentation as appropriate.
II. MasterCard Acquirer Program Support Fee — Applies only to transactions accepted by U.S. Region merchants on cards issued outside the U.S. Effective October 17, 2009, MasterCard is increasing the Acquirer Program Support fee. The fee is included in the interchange rates for credit card and non-PIN (signature) debit card transactions applied to your account and will be as set forth in both your interchange rate/fee schedule and the “Interchange Qualification Matrix”. The particular interchange rate applied to your transactions will depend on how your transactions qualify.
Visa® U.S.A., Inc. Operational and Rate Changes
I. Visa Misuse Authorization Fee — As a reminder, effective October 1, 2009, Visa will implement a Misuse of Authorization System Fee. This fee will be applied to authorized transactions that are not followed by a matching Visa cleared (settled) transaction (or in the case of a canceled transaction, not properly reversed). The fee can be avoided by clearing (settling) your transactions within 10 days of authorization for all MCCs, with the exception of Travel & Entertainment Merchants which must clear within 20 days. If an authorization is not needed, the authorization must be electronically reversed within 24 hours for card present authorizations, or 72 hours for card-not-present authorizations.
II. Qualification Criteria Change for Visa Interregional Transactions — Visa is changing the interchange processing rules for transactions conducted by U.S. merchants. Domestic interchange rates will no longer be assessed to U.S. merchants when a non-U.S. issued card is used to pay for goods/services. These transactions will receive interregional interchange rates. Effective October 17, 2009, the interchange rates for credit card and non-PIN (signature) debit card transactions applied to your account will be as set forth in both your interchange rate/fee schedule and the “Interchange Qualification Matrix”. The particular interchange rate applied to your transactions will depend on how your transactions qualify.
III. Visa International Acquiring Fee — Visa will implement a new fee to be assessed when a non-U.S. issued card is presented at a U.S. merchant. The new fee will be effective October 17, 2009. The fee is included in the interchange rates for credit card and non-PIN (signature) debit card transactions applied to your account and will be as set forth in both your interchange rate/fee schedule and the “Interchange Qualification Matrix”. The particular interchange rate applied to your transactions will depend on how your transactions qualify.
IV. Visa No Authorization Chargeback — Effective July 1, 2009, Visa announced a revision to allow Issuer chargeback rights for reason code 72 (No Authorization) when a transaction was settled by the merchant after an authorization reversal was processed. To avoid unnecessary chargebacks and/or fees, it is recommended not to settle the transaction after an authorization reversal occurs unless the reversal is for a partial amount.
V. Visa Transaction Processing Timeframes — Effective July 1, 2009, Visa announced that the time frame for processing sale transactions was reduced from 30 days to 20 days for T&E merchants and from 12 to 10 days for all other industry types. Refund transaction time frames were reduced to 10 days for T&E merchants and 5 days for all other merchants. To avoid unnecessary fees, please ensure you process both sales transactions and refund transactions daily.
Discover® Operational and Rate Changes
I. Discover Issuing Identification Number Range Changes — In December 2006, JCB & Discover announced a strategic alliance whereby JCB cards would be enabled on the Discover Network in the U.S. and select U.S. Territories. Merchants who accept Discover are now required to accept JCB cards and vice versa. Also in July 2008, Discover acquired Diners Club International whereby non North American Diners cards would be enabled on the Discover Network in October 2009. Merchants who currently accept Discover, but not Diners, will be required to accept non North American Diners cards and vice versa, in October 2009. Authorizations for Discover, JCB and Diners transactions will be routed to the Discover Network. Diners Club cards issued in the U.S. and Canada will continue to be processed through the MasterCard network as they were previously rebranded as a MasterCard product.
What does this mean to you? Merchants who currently accept JCB and Diners Club must also now accept Discover. Likewise, merchants who currently accept Discover must also now accept JCB and non North American Diners Club. JCB and non North American Diners transactions will be processed, qualified, funded, and reflected on your merchant statement as Discover. Discover disputes rules and processes will be applied to JCB and non North American Diners chargebacks. As long as you're enabled to process any of these card types, you do not need to do anything further.
PIN DEBIT Changes
Triple DES & PCI PED Requirements (PIN encryption)
Visa/Interlink has announced a mandate requiring all merchants accepting debit cards to use a PIN entry device that supports enhanced encryption, referred to as Triple DES, by July 1, 2010. As a result of this mandate, all PIN entry devices considered non-compliant will need to be replaced with a compliant PIN entry device. Affected merchants will be contacted with the details of the replacement. You can also obtain information regarding PCI-PED requirement mandates and approved devices at Visa.
Receipt Truncation Requirements
IMPORTANT REMINDER: If your terminal is not compliant with applicable federal and state law as well as card association rules, your business may be subject to significant fines or other penalties. The receipt you provide to a customer may not include the customer's card expiration date or any more than the last four digits of the customer's card number. In addition, some states, Visa and MasterCard have similar laws and requirements that apply to the receipt your business retains. If you believe that your terminal needs to be upgraded to comply with these requirements, please contact customer service at the number on your statement.
Data Security Requirements Reminder
The PCI Security Standards Council, founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa, Inc., require that all merchants maintain compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). The card associations are very serious about data security. Merchant fines and assessments resulting from a breach can easily reach more than $1million if your customers' credit card data is lost or stolen. Association fines alone can be as much as $500,000 per association. This is in addition to repayment of subsequent fraud and card reissuance costs. Assessing your risk and validating compliance can be accomplished using an approved security assessor/scan vendor who can guide you through the process. PCI Security Standards Council provides a complete list of PCI DSS requirements, education material, the self-assessment questionnaire and approved security assessors/scan vendors.
If you have not already started the process of becoming PCI DSS compliant, we invite you to visit our special Web site at: www.merchantinsider.com and click on Merchant Resources for more information on PCI Compliance/Data Security, or you can call SecurityMetrics at our dedicated toll-free number (800) 557-4684 to review your card handling process(es) and determine your specific PCI requirements.
Please note that the associations have made changes to their interchange programs and rates. Effective October 17, 2009, the interchange rates for credit card and non-PIN (signature) debit card transactions applied to your account will be as set forth in both the “Interchange Rate/Fee Schedule” and the “Interchange Qualification Matrix”. The particular interchange rate applied to your transactions will depend on how your transactions qualify. Due to changes in the rate structure and qualification criteria for the various card associations, you may incur an increase in interchange costs and fees beginning on your October statement that you receive in November. Please log in to www.merchantinsider.com/merchantresources/interchangefeeschedules to carefully review two documents, which describe the interchange fees and requirements beginning in October. The first document, titled “Interchange Rate/Fee Schedule”, contains important information about the interchange fees associated with your account. The second document, titled “Interchange Qualification Matrix”, provides a description of the various interchange levels established by the various card associations, as well as the primary qualification criteria for each interchange level, and similar information related to PIN debit networks.
